ALBUM REVIEW: Snowdrop – MONO
There’s something unique about post-rock that makes it a uniquely suitable medium for exploring themes of mortality and grief. The sweeping soundscapes, delicate dynamics and mostly instrumental compositions are ideal for exploring feelings that are larger than what words can describe. Seminal post-rock albums like WE LOST THE SEA’s Departure Songs, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT’s Epitaph and Dust And Disquiet by CASPIAN have already proven the power of post-rock when it comes to processing the loss of loved ones. Now, with their latest album, Snowdrop, Japanese post-rock masters MONO carry on this noble tradition.
Snowdrop, it transpires, was written and recorded in the aftermath of the passing of their dear friend, long time collaborator and defacto ‘fifth member of the band’, the legendary producer Steve Albini. Having produced seven of MONO’s albums between 2009’s Hymn To The Immortal Wind and 2024’s Oath, his loss was obviously devastating to the band. Despite initial uncertainty and confusion about how they would carry on without Albini at the helm, MONO chose honour his memory by recruiting one of Albini‘s good friends and colleagues, Brad Wood (SMASHING PUMPKINS, TOUCHE AMORE) and record at Electrical Audio, the same studio they’d recorded all their other Albini-produced records. The result is probably the most beautiful 45 minutes of music MONO has ever committed to tape.
Snowdrop may be an album inspired by death, but mournful and morose it is not. Rather, the tone of these eight songs is that of reflection, celebration and hope. With the exception of the closing track, all the songs are named after flowers, bringing to mind the cyclical nature of life, death and rebirth, as well as the fragile beauty of it all.
It begins with the title track, as a delicate melody is plucked on a single guitar that shimmers with reverb, like the first green shoots of spring poking their heads through the soil. Gradually, the melody blooms as more layers of instrumentation are introduced until it becomes an entire forest of glistening snowdrops. Winter Daphne is a post rock song in reverse, opening as it does with a cacophonous riff played with frantic urgency, before settling down into a more tranquil soundscape, like someone railing against the dying of the light, before they come to accept their fate and finding peace.
The addition of a 10-piece orchestra and eight-piece choir conducted by Chicago-based conductor Chad McCullough adds extra level of grandiosity to the band’s already already majestic instrumental compositions. Their contribution makes it one of those albums that reveals more and more with each listen, allowing the listener to zoom in on different elements, like taking a bouquet of flowers and admiring each individual flower, each petal and leaf, until it’s full beauty is revealed. Gerbera is by far the most hopeful sounding song on the album, with its marching band drums guiding the way and soaring melodies underpinned by gorgeous choral vocals.
The crackle of old vinyl ushers in the hauntingly beautiful Bells Of Ireland, a classical piece comprised of a simple melody on grand piano set against a soaring string quartet and chiming bells that set off the hairs on the back of your neck with each ring. Rounding out the album, Farewell To Spring provides a tearful goodbye, but it does so with a smile on its face and love in its heart, offering hope in place of despair. Every instrument, from the guitars and drums to the many orchestral elements, sing in harmony as complementary melodies weave in and out of each other as an ode to life lived, before gently fading out and signing off with a flourish.
In a back catalogue as rich and expansive as MONO’s, Snowdrop is bound to be held up in years to come as one of their more important records, and one that will be highly regarded in the pantheon of post-rock as a genre.
Rating: 9/10
Snowdrop is out now via Temporary Residence Ltd.
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